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{{trope}}
[[File:
{{quote|''"Particle Man, Particle Man
''Doin' the things a particle can
''What's he like? It's not important
''Particle Man"''|'''[[They Might Be Giants (band)|They Might Be Giants]]''', "Particle Man"}}
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Common themes include using animals, weapons, items or elements. Expect a lot of [[Theme Naming]] if the heroes are in a team.
The [[Legion of Super-Heroes]] even [[Justified Trope|justified this trope]] by noting how difficult it can be to give everyone in its ranks a unique codename. Summed it neatly as ''"Adjective-Gender"''.
In contrast is the [[The Dark Age of Comic Books|Dark Age]] practice of giving heroes and villains [[Dark Age of Supernames|gritty one-word names.]]
Compare [[Captain Superhero]] (perhaps the second most common superhero naming trope), [[Luke Nounverber]] (this trope's counterpart in [[Speculative Fiction]]), [[The Adjectival Superhero]], [[Species Surname]], [[All the Tropes Superhero Team]] (a [[Just for Fun]] page imagining any trope with a "something person" form was a superhero). Often, an [[Animal-Themed Superbeing]] might use this sort of naming scheme.
{{examples}}▼
▲{{examples}}
== Adjectives ==
* [[Elongated Man]], although lacking a [[Secret Identity]], he was often just called Ralph.
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* [[Normalman]], the only person on the planet Levram ''without'' superpowers (due to not actually being a native).
* [[Superman]], the original.
** Superboy
** [[Supergirl]]
** A "Superwoman" occasionally shows up, mostly so Time Warner can secure the trademark.
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* Giant Man (Hank Pym; see below for more of his names)
* Radioactive Man, a nuclear-powered Chinese physicist.
** Let's not forget the [[The Simpsons (animation)|other Radioactive Man]], with sidekick Fallout Boy.
* [[Freakazoid!|Expendable Lad]]
** And from the same show, the Huntsman.
* Wild Child
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* [[Great Lakes Avengers|Flatman]]
* Parodied in [[The Specials]] with Minute(pronounced my-noot) man, but often understandably mispronounced by people.
{{quote|
'''Minute Man''': My-noot Man! Do I look like a soldier from the Revolutionary War? I don't think so! Am I wearing a three-cornered hat? No! I turn small. Think!
'''College girl''': That costume makes you look gay. }}
** There actually ''is'' a Minuteman in [[Freedom Force]].
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*** Ultraman is also a villainous version of [[Superman]] from either Earth-3 or the Anti-matter Universe.
* Stupendous Man from [[Calvin and Hobbes]]
{{quote|
T for Tiger, ferocity of!
U for Underwear, red!
P for Power, incredible!
E for Excellent physique!
N for ...um... something ...hmm, well I'll come back to that...
D for Determination!
U for ...for... wait, how do you spell this? Is it I? }}
* Elasti-Girl and Negative Man of the ''[[Doom Patrol]]''. Subverted in that they HATED the "freak names" given to them, mostly it seems by the media.
** Negative Woman as well.
* [[Megamind|Metro Man]].
* [[Blankman]] of the [[Gadgeteer Genius]] variety, named so because he couldn't say a word (i.e. was blank) when asked for his name.
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* [[Agents of Atlas|Gorilla Man]]
** and Gorilla Girl
* [[Watchmen (comics)|Mothman]]
** Not to be confused with the possibly-real alien Mothman.
* Frog-man
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** And Iron Lad of the Young Avengers
* The [[Metal Men]], with individual elements as members; Gold, Iron, Tin, Lead, Mercury, and [[The Chick|token female]] Platinum (although these days, she's joined by Copper).
** [[The Breeders]]
{{quote|
I got something down on my chest
And [[Transformation Trauma|it began to bubble]] }}
* And of course, Element Lad from the [[Legion of Super-Heroes]]
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* DFE's ''Super 6'' had three: Elevator Man, Granite Man and Magneto Man.
* All of the members of Terrytoons' ''[[The Mighty Heroes]]'': Strong Man, Cuckoo Man, Diaper Man, Rope Man and Tornado Man.
* Particle Man, Triangle Man, Universe Man and Person Man from the song "Particle Man" by [[They Might Be Giants (band)|They Might Be Giants]].
* British comics and cartoon character Bananaman. (And his [[Evil Counterpart]] Appleman.)
* [[Hanna-Barbera]] had Birdman and the Galaxy Trio:
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* ...and the prehistoric [[Sidekick]]:
** Dino-Boy
* The [[Starman (
* [[Real Life]]: [[wikipedia:Tank man|Tank Man]].
* Maid-Man from ''[[Empowered]]''
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== Other/Redundant ==
* [[He-Man and the Masters of the Universe|He-Man]]. Probably the most unimaginative name ever.
* [http://2ndleaguecomic.livejournal.com She-Man]
* He-Mom, the no-nonsense mom of the superhero team ''The Ripping Friends''. And yes, it ''is'' worse than it sounds.
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* The above-mentioned Person Man.
* Strong Sad's fictional superhero persona: Twelve-Times-A-Day Man!
* ''[
* There was also a Man-Man (pronounced Mon-Mon) in Normalman. With the power of Ganja Breath.
* ''[[Mystery Science Theater 3000]]'', in a sketch where Joel and the Bots were making up their own superhero names, also used Man-Man, describing him as "the man with the proportionate strength of...a man!"
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* U-Go Girl (No, really)
* Fan Boy (Again, really)
* Rocket Man, maybe?
* [[Action League NOW|Melt Man]], with the power to... '''melt!'''
** Not to be confused with Coupling's Melty Man
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* [[Splosion Man]].
* ''[[Superhero League of Hoboken]]'' features on its roster, among other heroes, Tropical Oil Man and Treader Man. The latter of which has the superpower to ''be really good at treading water''. (The power of Heart is starting to look good now...)
* The Civic-Minded Five on [[The Tick (animation)]] included The Carpeted Man. Don't let him rub up against you, or you'll get a nasty static-electric shock!
** Also Four-Legged Man in the TV series, Oddman in the Comic Book, and Feral Boy in both.
* [[Heroman]].
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** ...Except ''Mega Man 9''. Which stirs things up by adding <s>[[The Smurfette Principle|Token Female]]</s> Splashwo Man.
** Even if certain Navis in ''Battle Network'' did not have "-Man" attatched to their names, all of their names will still end with .EXE, as they are [[What Measure Is a Non-Human?|(very personal) computer programs]]. However, from the third game onwards, most Navis dropped the .EXE extension when referring to other Navis by name.
* The [[Legion of Super-Heroes]], amongst its approximately 100 members, mostly all have names of this makeup. The most popular suffixes are "-Boy", "-Lad", "-King", "-Girl", "-Lass", "-Queen", "and "-Kid". Some notable examples are Cosmic Boy, Saturn Girl, Lightning Lad, Bouncing Boy, Invisible Kid, Chemical King, Insect Queen, Shadow Lass and, of course, [https://web.archive.org/web/20140409071109/http://superdickery.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=715:matter-eater-lad&catid=36:stupor-powers-index&Itemid=38 Matter Eater Lad]...
** ''Wizard'' magazine once parodied this practice with a Top 10 list of rejected Legion characters, including "Lad Lass" and "Keep-Squeezing-Them-Monkeys Lad".
** ...of course, they were about 30 years late to the party; the Legion of Substitute Heroes existed back in [[The Silver Age of Comic Books]], with characters like Stone Boy, who had the ability to turn into an immobile statue; Color Kid, who could change the color of things;<ref>though, if the [[Green Lantern]] Corps got their hands on him, he'd be indispensable</ref>
*** Don't forget the ''[[wikipedia:Animal-Vegetable-Mineral Man|Animal-Vegetable-Mineral Man]]''.
**** [[Phil Foglio]], in ''[[Dragon (magazine)|Dragon]]'' magazine's ''[[What's New with Phil and Dixie]]'' feature, suggested a transforming superhero named Gazebo Boy (who proved completely vulnerable to [[The Adjectival Superhero|The Mighty]] [[Animal-Themed Superbeing|Termite]]).
* An occasional bit on ''[[Whose Line Is It Anyway?
* Spoofed by the webcomic ''Supermegatopia'', which features a team called the Men-Men. Their roster includes Fire Man, Space Man, Sails Man, Snow Man, and even a [[The Chick|token female]] called Milk Man. Their leader is an anthropomorphic chair called [[Late to
** They play with the trope in other ways, such as how there are both [[Wonder Woman]] and Wonder Man analogues, both of whom are wombats and call themselves Wonder Wombat. Canon has it that there were many lawsuits before they decided no one was likely to confuse them for each other all that often.
* Oddly enough, ''[[Who Wants to Be a Superhero?]]'' rarely has contestents with names like this, as the applicants are mostly [[Genre Savvy]] and consider these names overused. On rare occasion, however...
{{quote|
'''Contestant:''' I am ''Hommmmmeeeeeeeleeeesssss Maaaaaan''! }}
* When Cyclops is injured in an issue of ''[[X-Men (Comic Book)|Astonishing X-Men]]'', he hallucinates having a Fire-Man, Clothing-Man, and Ability-To-Hop-Man on his team along with the real
* [[The Incredibles|Elastigirl]], of course. (Brief mention was made of other "supers" with names following this pattern: Strato-girl, Dynaguy, etc.)
* The Mavericks from the ''[[Mega Man X]]'' games deserve mention, as they (mostly) fall into the "something-''animal''" naming scheme.
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* [[Stephen Lynch]]'s "If I Could Be a Superhero". Not just the song (which has Awesome Man, Immigration Dude, and Justice Guy), but the point during a live performance when Lynch calls out for audience suggestions. They're mostly [[NSFW]]... except for Homeless Man and Narcolepsy Boy. Lynch takes the examples and flies with them, taking a moment to describe what each sort of superhero would do.
* ''Wonder Boy III: The Dragon's Trap'' lists the [[Baleful Polymorph|turned-to-animal forms]] as "Lion-Man", "Mouse-Man", "Piranha-Man"... and the regular form as the groan-inducing "Hu-Man".
* In the [[
* ''[[
** Later, we meet Barebuttman and Pancake-Loving Man.
* The [[Legion of Net.Heroes|Legion of Net Heroes]] is filled with these. They're often either outright parodies or just plain silly. The list includes [[They Might Be Giants (band)|Particle Man]], [[Monty Python's Flying Circus|Bicycle Repair Lad]], and [[No Fourth Wall|Fourth Wall Lass]].
* One ''Mac Hall'' comic featured three of the characters going to a Halloween costume party as "The Bag Brothers Three". Each of the three was wearing a different kind of bag over his head (paper, plastic, and sleeping).
* One of Toei's [[Metal Heroes]] was actually called ''Janperson''. It seems that the title was actually supposed to be romanised as "Jumperson", as the titular character (who is a robot, not a person) wears a jumpsuit from time to time.
* Lampshaded in an issue of ''Marvel Team-Up'', where Spider-Man meets Image Comics superhero [[Invincible]] who ribs him for his unimaginative name. Later, Invincible meets the Avengers:
{{quote|
* In a ''[[Sluggy Freelance]]'' "[[Stick Figure Comic|Stick Figure Week]]" story, Torg is exposed to radiation and becomes "Lost All My Hair and Teeth Man."
* While this is mostly averted in the ''[[Global Guardians PBEM Universe]]'', it does occur every once in a while. Notable examples include Brain Boy, Gravity Man, Jungle Boy, Patchwork Man, and Fantastic Man.
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* Online reviewer [[Marz Gurl]] (who is a female fan of [[Looney Tunes|Marvin the Martian]]).
* A bunch of earlier [[Super Sentai]] teams are name liked this this: [[Denshi Sentai Denziman|Denziman]] ("Electromagnetic Man"), [[Kagaku Sentai Dynaman|Dynaman]], [[Choudenshi Bioman|Bioman]], [[Dengeki Sentai Changeman|Changeman]], [[Choushinsei Flashman|Flashman]], [[Hikari Sentai Maskman|Maskman]], [[Choujuu Sentai Liveman|Liveman]], [[Chikyuu Sentai Fiveman|Fiveman]], [[Choujin Sentai Jetman|Jetman]] and [[Seijuu Sentai Gingaman|Gingaman]] ("Galaxy Man").
== Real Life ==
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{{reflist}}
[[Category:Naming Conventions]]
[[Category:Superhero Tropes]]
[[Category:
▲[[Category:Something Person]]
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